Lars Frederiksen, guitarist for the California punk band Rancid, died of unknown causes yesterday, October 29, at his home near Berkley, California. He was 31. Mr. Frederiksen joined Rancid in 1993 after his own band, Slip, disbanded. Rancid, whose music was a combination of late ’70s style punk and ska, has been attributed as an important part of the mid ‘90s revival of punk along with Green Day and The Offspring. Rancid’s third album, …And Out Come the Wolves, sold over a million copies on an independent label, an accomplishment very rare for the time. Mr. Frederiksen released a solo album, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, in 2001. Mr. Frederiksen was born on August 30, 1971 in the blue-collar town of Campbell, California near San Jose. His father, John Dapello abandoned him, his mother, and his older brother in 1974 when he was three. His mother, Minna Frederiksen, was a Danish immigrant who arrived in the country without money, citizenship, or knowledge of the English language. She worked weekdays as a keypunch operator and weekends as an Avon lady to support her two children. Despite the impoverished upbringing, Mr. Frederiksen often looked back nostalgically at his childhood, saying in a 1996 interview with the Star Tribune, “I wouldn’t say I had a hard life, but I remember eating Raisin Bran for dinner a bunch of times.” His brother, Robert Dapello, was four years his senior and was a major influence in his life. Mr. Frederiksen’s love of music began by listening to Rob’s glam rock records, including Rob’s favorite band Kiss. In 1981, Rob brought home a copy of the movie Rock ‘n’ Roll High School that included songs by punk rockers, The Ramones. In a 1996 interview for Addict magazine Mr. Frederiksen recalled, “I sat up and watched Rock ‘n’ Roll High School 27 times… it changed my life in a certain way, just the movie and the ‘Rock & Roll High School’ song and the energy and everything.” Rob died of an aneurysm on February 24, 2001. By the age of 16, Mr. Frederiksen had begun playing guitar, developed a heroin addiction and drinking problem, dropped out of high school, and had been a member of a gang called “The Skunx” for five years. At 16, he became the leader of the troupe, whose membership was withering due to deaths, arrests, and army recruitment. His best friend, Ben Zanotto, was also a member of “The Skunx.” In a letter, Mr. Frederiksen described his friendship with Mr. Zanotto, “We always looked out for each other. We stole with each other, drank, fought, and f---ed around with one another’s heads all in good fun. We were the terrible twins christened by our comrades…” Ben died in 1999 of a heroin overdose. It was not until Mr. Frederiksen was in his twenties did he begin to turn his life around. In 1992, he had just spent two years in several short-lived positions with bands including the UK Subs, Los Cajones, and Slip. In a Juice Magazine interview from 1998, he said, “As far as I was concerned at that point in my life, I was 20 years old, I had a sh---y job and was in and out of bands, getting kicked out or just forgetting to show up… When you’re caught up in that whirlwind of drugs and alcohol it just doesn’t seem like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel ‘cause you’re in it, you know every day you’re just on the grift, looking for the score.” Mr. Frederiksen cleaned up his habit because of Rancid. He met the members of the band when his band, Slip, played a local show with them in 1992. Tim Armstrong, guitarist for Rancid, invited Mr. Frederiksen to fill the vacant guitarist position in the band, but he did not accept until 1993 when Slip disbanded. In an interview with Guitar School magazine in 1996, Mr. Armstrong said, “When I met Lars, I just knew he was the one. He’s got a feel and he’s totally well rounded.” Mr. Frederiksen’s initial encounter with Tim had been in a daylong drunken haze. Although he was off of heroin by the time he joined the band, he compensated for the addiction with an increased amount of alcohol. But within a year of joining the band, Mr. Frederiksen had given up drinking entirely and had remained off of heroin. This turnaround was largely due to the increased amount of support each member of the band needed from the others in overcoming their own addictions. Mr. Armstrong had overdosed three times already and alcohol was dominating Mr. Frederiksen’s day to day living. He summed up his change in attitude in a 1998 interview with Ink 19, “It’s kinda like, you either wanna die or you wanna make music, and I think music’s a little bit more important to us.” Mr. Frederiksen’s debut in Rancid was on their sophomore album, Let’s Go (1994), which went gold in the United States, selling over 500,000 copies. The album attracted the attention of major labels and the band was confronted with the dilemma of staying on their current independent label, Epitaph, or signing a contract with a major label that could offer more money and better promotion. In the punk culture, the latter option was known as “selling out” because it was interpreted as an attitude of being in a band for money rather than for the music. They decided to stay on Epitaph, turning down deals such as a seven-figure contract from Epic. Their next album …And Out Come the Wolves (1995) sold over one million copies, double the amount of Let’s Go. Tim Armstrong utilized the band’s newfound success by creating Hellcat Records as a sub-label of Epitaph to support the musicians that the band had become fans off. Mr. Frederiksen was given the right to produce any band he wanted for the label. Among his more popular projects was the Boston-based Oi punkers Dropkick Murphys. In a Washington Post interview in 2001, Mr. Frederiksen explained the band’s reasoning for creating the label, “It’s just another extension of our independent roots. It’s giving back to bands that we love, and that’s the most important thing.” Mr. Frederiksen was never one to stay idle. While Rancid took a break after their 2000 self-titled release, he created a side project entitle Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. The self-titled release was filled with stories about Mr. Frederiksen’s childhood including an ode to the Skunx and his deceased friend, Ben Zanotto. Mr. Frederiksen viewed the members of Rancid as his family, often referring to them as brothers. In a Washington Post interview from 2001, he said, “When I got into Rancid, it was the first time I experienced unconditional friendship, unconditional love, unconditional acceptance. Those guys are my family – I would kill for them.” Mr. Frederiksen prided himself on his punk lifestyle and blue-collar upbringing and mentioned it often in his lyrics. He told a reporter at the Star Tribune in 1996, “I don’t understand limousines with hot tubs. I don’t understand waking up with 10 chicks in your bed. I don’t understand fighting dragons and slaying the knight with the maiden… I understand real life and what’s going on.” He was also known for the large amount of tattoos that he had accumulated all over his body ranging from his mother’s name on his hand, to a spider web on his elbow, to a rooster with its head in a noose on his right shin. Although he was a godfather and had considered having children, he never saw himself as a role model. Rather, he believed that he was doing the only thing he was capable of doing well. “What else am I gonna do, work as a bank teller? No one’s gonna give me a job the way I look… I’m not a role model. I’m not f—king Michael Jordan, and we’re not flag carriers for anyone,” he said in a 2001 LA Weekly interview. Lars Frederiksen is survived by his mother Minna Frederiksen, 67, and his fellow band members Tim Armstrong, 37, Matt Freeman, 37, and Brett Reed, 30. And this could also just be a coincedence i do not know, Look at the comment someone posted Here Like i say i do not know if this is a coincedence, Feedback is very much appreciated.
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